Buzzfeeds Q&A

This week, we've launched the Buzzfeeds Q&A. It's a place for you to ask your bee-related questions, post links for us to include in our weekly updates and for the beekeepers among us to share tips. Alison Benjamin will pop in every week and answer your questions.

What happened: The insecticide being sprayed throughout towns in Massachusetts to combat West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne illnesses this summer also hit an unintended target: honeybees. Hundreds of thousands died this summer, infuriating local beekeepers who are unable to protect their hives from the harmful spray.

West Nile can be fatal, but health officials estimate that fewer than 1% of people infected develop severe illness. Beekeepers say the decision to spray entire towns with the bee-killing insecticide is an overreaction.

Key quote:

'Bees are like our barometer. If there are bees, we know it's a healthy environment,' said beekeeper Kim Klibansky. 'That [mosquito] spray wipes out a lot of flying insects, not just mosquitoes. I just don't think the risk is worth it.'

Why it matters: In the United States, from the 1940s, large volumes of DDT were sprayed outdoors to kill mosquitoes and pests on crops. Government propaganda films show the friendly DDT man coming to 'safely' spray your town. But in 1972 it was banned after building up in the food chain and nearly wiping out bald eagles, pelicans and other birds as documented by Rachel Carson in A Silent Spring.

And a variety of human health effects have been discovered, including reduced fertility, genital birth defects and breast cancer.

Due to the insecticide now being used in government-run spraying programs to combat West Nile virus in US towns has been given the all-clear but some scientists and health organizations say the chemicals' health and environmental impact has been underestimated, including effects on sensitive people and on non-target species such as honeybees. Honeybees can fly up to three miles in search of food, so beekeepers need to be given enough notice of the spraying, so they have the chance to move their hives well away from town. Although people are instructed to stay indoors with their pets, if the chemical is harmful to bees and other insects important in the food chain, you have to wonder how long before it too is shown to have detrimental effects on the ecosystem and human health.

What happened: Some bees must travel more than a mile to find food, according to a study led by the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Scientists took samples from more than 3,000 bees, grouped those bees into 2,000 colonies and mapped the colonies against the landscape to see how far the bees traveled.

Bees moved between 880ft to 1,800ft on average, but bees living in areas with less flowers had to fly more than 1.12 miles.

Key quote:

'We hope that, by providing detailed insights into how bumblebees move around landscapes, our results will lead to improved interventions for bees so that wildflowers and crops can continue to benefit from their pollination services,' said professor Andrew Bourke, a behavioural ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the university.

Why it matters: Honeybees fly up to three miles in search of a good food source and this study shows bumblebees can forage more than a mile from their nest if food is scare nearer home. But no bee wants to exert that much energy collecting the nectar and pollen they need to bring home to feed the colony. While they collect their food they are pollinating plants and crops, which provide food for birds, animals and humans. This research shows that more forage needs to be planted in the areas where bumblebees are flying further than other areas. If this is farmland, then the research could encourage farmers to plant more wildflowers on their land to attract bumblebees who will pollinate their crops. There are a number of studies being conducted in the UK on how we can better manage our land for pollinators including the University of Bristol's urban pollinators project.

What happened: Last week we wrote about how the EPA is introducing a new label for pesticides in an effort to better protect pollinators. This week, people are asking whether simply adding a label to pesticides will help preserve the bee population.

Key quote:

Factory farms make their money by producing a huge volume of product. That means everything about the planting, fertilizing, watering and harvesting needs to happen exactly on schedule. What are the chances that, on the day of a scheduled pesticide application, they're going to stop everything to figure out whether the wind is going to carry the poison to a bee population?

Why it matters: Adding a new label to a bee-toxic pesticide is unlikely to reduce bee deaths, because farmers can and will ignore labels and are unlikely to be found out or prosecuted for negligence. Moreover, farmers use a range of chemicals on their crops including fungicides, pesticides and herbicides. Research has shown that the toxicity of these chemicals can increase 1,000-fold if they are mixed.

The EPA needs to impose more rigorous tests on the impact pesticides have on bee colonies and bee brood, before they approve their use in the field. Earlier this year, it approved another highly bee-toxic insecticide called sulfoxaflor without these studies on colony and brood health being made available to the public.

What happened: The Food Standards Agency has issued a statement alerting people to fraudsters who are selling fake versions of manuka honey – a New Zealand honey that is claimed to have medicinal qualities – can sell for up to £45 a jar.

The main honey supply organization in New Zealand said it thinks 1,700 tons of the honey are produced in the country each year, yet the group also estimates 10,000 tons of "manuka" honey are sold globally each year.

Key quote:

John Rawcliffe, from the Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association, said: 'There is potentially huge fraud. 'There are higher and ever-increasing volumes of honey being labelled as manuka that are not manuka.'

Why it matters: Manuka honey, made by bees feeding on the manuka bush in New Zealand, has been cleverly marketed as a cure-all, but all types of honey have anti-bacterial and antiseptic qualities. Put any honey on a burn and you won't scar, gargle with any honey and it will ease a sore throat. Honey throughout the ages has been used to threat an A-Z of ailments from arthritis to ulcers. Even the Qur'an extols honey's medicinal properties. All that sets Manuka honey apart from other varieties are the empirical studies, research, accreditation and certification it has undergone which has allowed it to be sold at inflated prices. No wonder fraudsters are flogging fake versions.

Hopefully, this will make people switch to buying locally produced honey instead, which is usually available in your local deli. It has some major advantages over manuka – it hugely saves on food miles, and, although not medically proven, can help hay fever sufferers because the honey will contain minute quantities of the pollen to which they are allergic. Oh yes, and it doesn't cost £45 a jar.